Between the ages of seventeen and twenty, Adrian Tomine self-published a series of “mini-comics”: small, hand-assembled booklets thta he wrote, drew, and distributed himself. Entitled Optic Nerve, these comics were comprised of short vignettes and stories which displayed a youthful energy, an unabashed sense of experimentation, and the first hints of the distinctive, realist style that Tomine would go on to perfect. Over the course of those three years, word of mouth spread about these comics, and something that began as a teenage hobby was recognized as the arrival of a promising new talent. By 1994, Drawn & Quarterly had taken over the publishing of Tomine’s comics, and these original seven issues sold out and were left out of print. 32 Stories presents those rare, early mini-comics for the first time in archival facsimile form: all seven issues in their entirety, faithfully reproduced and collected.
